Barrister Julian Burnside likened Israelis to Nazis

Julian Burnside has been accused of anti-Semitism after equating Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to Nazi Germany.

Barrister Julian Burnside. Picture: AAP

Jewish figures have accused ­Julian Burnside of anti-Semitism and breaking a promise to Holocaust survivors after the prominent human rights barrister took to social media to equate Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to Nazi Germany.

Mr Burnside, who once represented Alan Bond and Rose Porteous but has more recently taken up various human rights causes, had in 2018 been condemned by the Jewish community after reposting an image showing Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s face superimposed on a Nazi officer in a uniform that ­included the “death’s head” emblem used by the SS unit responsible for concentration camps

Mr Burnside, at the time, said it was not a reference to the Holocaust but accepted an invitation from the Anti-Defamation Commission to meet with survivors as a “common courtesy”.

Dvir Abramovich, the ADC’s chairman, said Mr Burnside had apologised and told Holocaust survivor Moshe Fiszman he would not make comparisons with Nazi Germany in the future.

On Wednesday, however, Mr Burnside wrote on Twitter that Israel’s “treatment of the Palestinians looks horribly like the German treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust”.

That post was related to a Washington Post article about a Human Rights Watch report into violations of international law during 11 days of fighting with Hamas militants.

The curious thing about the Israeli stance is that their treatment of the Palestinians looks horribly like the German treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust https://t.co/YoNEQJOFXm

— Julian Burnside (@JulianBurnside) July 28, 2021

“I would have thought … he would have honoured his commitment to a 96-year-old hero who lost most of his relatives in Auschwitz,” Dr Abramovich said.

“To equate Israelis to Nazis is to turn the survivors of Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’ to those beastly murderers who pushed mothers and their children into the gas chambers, and this indefensible and cruel exploitation of the 20th century’s darkest episode perverts the meaning of the word Holocaust.

“Mr Burnside knows very well that there is no Israeli policy, plan or ideology to persecute, expel or annihilate the Palestinian population – nor has there ever been.”

Mr Burnside, who has previously run as a candidate for the Greens in the electorate of Koo­yong against Josh Frydenberg, was also criticised by various Liberal and Labor MPs including Education Minister Alan Tudge, who called it “just disgraceful’’ and Superannuation Minister Jane Hume, who said the comment was “very foolish’’.

Mark Leibler, a senior Australian tax lawyer and corporate strategist, said: “The curious thing about @JulianBurnsides’s tweet is that it looks horribly like unadulterated antisemitism.’’

The curious thing about @JulianBurnside ‘s tweet is that it looks horribly like unadulterated antisemitism https://t.co/wQlDLZ0t7y

— Mark Leibler (@LeiblerMark) July 28, 2021

“Wrong. Evil. Sickening. A classic and sinister example of anti-Semitism,” Labor senator Kimberley Kitching wrote in a post on Twitter. “I hope this is deleted. Amazing that such an accomplished lawyer would promote such odious nonsense. The Greens party very nearly put him into the Senate too. They dodged a bullet.’’

Wrong. Evil. Sickening. A classic and sinister example of anti-Semitism.

I hope this is deleted. Amazing that such an accomplished lawyer would promote such odious nonsense. The Greens party very nearly put him into the Senate too. They dodged a bullet. #auspolhttps://t.co/Vg3MogJrYX

— Kimberley Kitching🇦🇺🦘 (@kimbakit) July 28, 2021

Mr Burnside ran unsuccessfully last year in a Greens pre­selection to fill Richard Di Natale’s vacant Senate seat, but lost to Indigenous campaigner Lidia Thorpe.

Having met Mr Burnside in 2018, Mr Fiszman said he thought the silk did not understand the ­Holocaust.

“He is a smart man, a man with a rich ­vocabulary,” Mr Fiszman told The Australian.

“A man with such a rich vocabulary should not have to use the Nazis as a prop … no one should do that.”